Thrift store finds and crafty things from the butt-end of Europe

Tag Archives: holiday crafts

A stitch I wasn’t too keen on, crossed buttonhole. I can see a use for it in crazy quilting but for me this stitch is blaargh.

I didn’t have enough black floss to do the entire sampler so I had to switch to dark grey after just two rows.

Nope, still no positive feelings about this. I might change my mind if I stitched this on aida and thus be able to make all the stitches even and symmetric. Yup, that’s what is bothering me here. See, talking to yourself helps the creative process. Opens up new horizons and all that.

My fourth day in Paris involved acquainting myself with a French cheap a** store called Babou. I went there because my friend works nearby one and we agreed to meet on her lunch break just go to visit there. She enticed me by telling me about their large craft section (which it wasn’t) but the Christmas decoration aisles (plural!) made up for it.

Honestly I’d spent so much more money (on Christmas decorations alone) had I had more time and only heaven knows how much if I’d gone through every section there. The little I saw was promising and I’m especially keen on the dining decor aisles (only the French) as there were items such as feathers (?) Yes, feathers for dining decor. Naturally I’m paying another visit so I can prowl through every singe aisle as I already bought one Christmas present and I feel that there are tons more to be found.

Of course you’d like to know what I got,right? Well, first of all, that wooden HoHoHo which was 2.99! That’s cheap my friends.

Then I got bunch of sticker sets that I’ve already cut into smaller sets to go into the advent calendar I`m making for my god-daughter. I actually got started on it over a week ago but decided to finish it here in Paris so I could get french things to go in there. Awwww. There were tons more back in the store only 99 cents each so I may have to get some for myself.

I just realized how lame that sounds. Hi! My name is Niina and I went to Paris and got myself 99 cent stickers. And BTW, here’s my cat, Kitty Whiskerson.

There are occasions where/when I get organized on time and yesterday was one of them.

My precious…The christmas decorations box. Somewhat neat and tidy from last year and ready to be used to bring some festiveness into Thrifty Finn Apartment.

I have new bookcases where these babies found their new home. I think I should make more glitter houses. In mid-century colourways…German glass glitter, here I come.

Turquoise star! Who in their right mind would use a tinsel topper when you can get a glittered star! With sequins! In turquoise!

Peppermint baubles. From Ikea. I loooove peppermint baubles. It even sounds nice; peppermint baubles. Like a naughty Christmas party drink. Or a name for a print. Or a title for an editorial in Martha Stewart Living.

There is a reason why I’ve put up my Christmas decorations up this early and you’ll find out in a day or two. My friends on Facebook know about as I’ve been yapping about for weeks already but what can a girl do when she’s all happy and excited about something? Write status updates about it until all of your friends’ just want to punch you in the face.

Yes, today is my birthday. My Facebook- wall is filled with congratulations and I’m still feeling the after effects from last Saturday. I celebrated with my cousin, sister and her partner by playing Clue, drinking too much and then dancing the night away. At a BAR! I don’t have any pictures to commemorate my birthday but I finally compiled a slide show from our Halloween pictures! I swear, all this partying is starting to take the toll and I’m sorry to say there’s one more to go. My sister graduated (finally) so once again we have to dress up and drink way, WAY too much. When I say have to, I really mean that we will be having so much fun that we won’t notice how much we drank until it’s too late.

Very mature. I know.

Back to Halloween. These images contain pictures of people in various states of drunkenness so they might not be STFW but you will get to see lots of cool costumes😀

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Naturally we had a smallish costume competition. I whipped up awards for winners in various important categories such as:

Scariest Skank

Best Brain Disease (Zombie)

Best Slap

Most Likely To Pull That Night

Most Likely To Drink Too Much and Puke

Best Costume. Period.

Biggest Ho’ (Little Red if you’re interested)

Most Gay Costume

I’m so proud of myself and my friends. I strongly recommend to celebrate Halloween. It’s the second best holiday, Christmas being the first because of the presents but as soon as giving gifts becomes part of Halloween, we will have a new winner!

I’m now assuming that you know Spoonflower, the custom fabric printing company and their Fabric of the Week- contest. I’ve been thinking about making a design or two “one of these days” for those contests but never got around to it. But then last weekend, in a bout of insomnia, I spent some quality time playing with Illustrator just to see if I could come up with something. And who would have thought? I actually managed to finish a design. On time to enter!!! Mind boggling, I know.

Okay, the theme in this week’s contest was hanging ornament pattern and this is my entry: Pointsettias in Bloom. All that work I put in and only realizing AFTER hitting upload the design that I misspelled poinsettia. But hey, English is my second language so I cannot be expected to know all the rules. Right? RIGHT?

If you feel like it, go and have a look at this week’s submitted designs and vote for your favourites. The best part about voting in a Spoonflower- contest is that you get to choose ALL your faves, not just one. Obviously, I’m hoping that my design is one of them. *innocent blinking*